An appassionato quite literally in Italian means “passion” or another way to take this would be “deeply emotional.”

In terms of music, it is an Italian term used in music which is defined as telling the musician to perform with a great amount of emotion. A love duet in an opera in an example of music that is sung appassionato.

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This Christmas, tune in to passion. It needn’t have to be a fiery love that engulfs a person entirely. It could be gentle, it could be confusing, it could be forlorn.

It could be sung as a melody, a serenade, a threnody. After all passion can be abstract. And its passion that is the forerunner for love.

Our princes await your important presence! See you this Winter Appassionato!!

i’ve had my garmin since march 2014 (a while now) and it’s been incredibly buggy for the past few days - every time i try to start a run, whether or not i’ve synced my GPS, it’ll just immediately shut off and the charging screen will pop up.

i’ve done two hard resets on it and i’m not sure if it’s time to throw in the towel and order a new watch.

Today, Halo is one of the largest transmedia franchises ever to exist. It has numerous novels, comics, films (live action and animated), Terminals, and other pieces of media which substantially add to the lore.

Here is a comprehensive list of free resources of Halo media, this is largely something for people who may not have the Halo universe quite as readily available to them, but for those looking to refresh themselves with both old and new content then this is just as much for you. Feel free to add on anything I may have missed.

So, some people I know seem to have ‘cracked’ Forerunner translation for the glyphs we see in Halo 4 now that we actually have a complete alphabet. We know 343 has this sort of thing - along with a Sangheili dictionary - but has been drip-feeding us for years.

Across all the games, there are 6 established Forerunner writing systems. There’s the rectangle type in Halo 3, the hexagon type in Halo Wars/Spartan Assault/Waypoint Terminals, circular type (this appears to be Digon, the dialect of the Warrior-Servants), and then there’s hieroglyphic scripture, planet, and line types (we don’t have anything concrete on those last 3).

We can now see an extra level of detail in some of Halo 4′s marketing materials, actual levels in the campaign, right down to details on weapon skins.

The Eld with all the glyps we see in the second mission that Cortana translates? It’s all on there:

The same inscription is on one of the Suppressor skins from Halo 4′s multiplayer.

The Didact poster also says “TRESPASS IS DOOM, RECLAIMER”.

Obviously alluding to the warning that Librarian and Endurance put out when they stick the Ur-Didact in a Cryptum.

Various terminals say the worlds “shield”, “power”, “on”, and “off” on them and the way you are animated to activate them actually lines up with the translation.

And the slipspace artefact that Halsey and Glassman fiddle about with in Spartan Ops says “TECHLINK ESTABLISHED, FORERUNNER” when interacted with.

This is pretty damn amazing, we can now effectively write in Digon.

Props to whoever is behind all this astonishing level of detail and those who have spent years hanging on to every piece of canon material for translations.

so a while ago I saw that someone called 343i’s Forerunner style “bland and lazy”, and that hit me. Honestly, I was awed and inspired my the breathtaking views of the inside and outer parts of the Forerunner buildings. And for someone to just call it lazy, it kinda hurt.

Anyway, I’d like to share something. When I look at 343i’s Forerunner structures, I’m not only captivated by it, but I’m amazed by how much time they took to turn a concept into something final and absolutely gorgeous. When I look at Bungie’s stuff, it’s complex, yet simple. I won’t trash talk Bungie’s early concepts, for it was the predecessor of what we see today; however, when i look at both companies’ designs, I end up getting a sort of 343i-withdrawal syndrome when I transition from two completely different designs.

Some people may like Bungie’s designs better, but for me, haruspis and many others’ opinions, 343i wins hands-down. 343i tried their best to bring something so stunning to our eyes and regardless if someone likes Bungie’s structures better, they can’t lie but say that 343i’s were at least good

“The humans were not meant to protect others. The Mantle of Responsibility for all things is ours, and ours alone.”“Yes, the Mantle is ours, and we hold it so tight, even in death we shall hold it still.”